In Uganda, citizen journalists fill news gap during riots

Last week in Uganda,
authorities reacted to violent anti-government
demonstrations, at left, by yanking at least four
radio stations off the air and banning political programming and some
journalists from the airwaves. I have
been covering the Ugandan blogosphere for Global Voices for more than two
years. News of the violence first reached me on Thursday afternoon, not through
the BBC or TheNew York Times, but
on Twitter.It came in seven words, sent
via SMS to the micro-blogging service by my friend Solomon King, a Web
developer in the capital, Kampala:
“Okay. We're like
running for our lives.”

Political tensions are mounting in Uganda in the lead-up to
presidential elections in 2011. Last month, incumbent President Yoweri Museveni
warned
the media against “inciting the public” against the government and several
journalists face criminal
prosecutions or police
interrogation for their critical coverage of current affairs. Thursday’s
deadly violence erupted after the government banned the ruler of the
traditional kingdom of Buganda, home to Uganda’s
largest ethnic group, from visiting an area north of Kampala.

I spent most of the night and the
rest of the weekend glued to my laptop, feverishly refreshing Twitter
application TweetDeck and paging
through Ugandan blog aggregator Blogspirit,
hoping for news of friends in Kampala,
the city I called home in 2006 and 2007.

I wasn’t the only one having difficulty finding information
on the riots. The government’s clampdown
on the Ugandan private broadcast media, including Friday’s arrest
of talk show host Kalundi Sserumaga on sedition charges, and an indefinite
ban on the registration of new radio stations, had severely restricted
coverage.

In fact, according to residents of Kampala, most Ugandan
television stations were operating under restricted broadcasting conditions,
airing little or no news during the riots. “TV Uganda is playing music videos
and NTV Uganda is showing That's so Raven,”
wrote Sarah
Malan, a South African expat living in Kampala, in her blog on Friday. Trisha
Olsson, a development worker who tweets at CamaraAfrica, noted, “Wow...everyone
hurry and turn to [Ugandan television station] NBS
for a riveting report on...wait for it...how to play golf.” Though newspapers
were allowed to continue reporting, their news was often delayed by hours, if
not an entire day. The absence of real-time coverage led many Kampalans to seek
out alternative sources of information.

Within 24 hours of the first violence, volunteers in Kampala launched Uganda
Witness, a crisis reporting site where Ugandans can share news of
deaths, looting, presence of government forces and other riot-related
information. As of Tuesday, 45 separate reports had been submitted via SMS.

Twitter proved an especially rich source of information. On
Friday, the second day of the violence, Uganda
Telecom announced that it would provide free Twitter access to its
customers. Users like Solomon King
and journalist Tumwijuke Mutambuka
posted information on where rioters and police forces were gathering and which
journalists had been detained.

Bloggers also stepped up to fill the information void, populating Blogspiritwith their personal stories,
observations and experiences during the riots.

The difference in coverage can be largely attributed to the increased
availability of Internet and Internet-connected mobile phones. According to the
International Telecommunications Union, the percentage of Uganda's population
with Internet access has almost doubled since 2007. When combined with the
advent of Twitter, which is accessible by mobile phone, better Internet access
enabled more real-time coverage, filling the gap left by mainstream media
closures and keeping both Kampalans and people in the rest of the world
informed.

In the aftermath of the riots, Ugandans have continued to serve a
socio-journalistic role, reporting on political developments and documenting
the extent of last week's violence on Uganda Witness. If the government
continues to restrict broadcast media, Uganda's citizen journalists will likely
play an increasingly important role in sharing information.

Writes Jon
Gos, an American software entrepreneur living in Kampala, “We still don’t
quite know what we’re dealing with in Kampala. It’s either the beginning or the
end of a wider-scale confrontation. For those of us on the ground, we’re
starved for information. The mobile phone and its users are essentially the
only reports we can rely on for timely info.”

I thought anyones right starts where other person's right stops. Journalist are entitled to their rights BUT should be mindful of what they say. I read some of the comments made by the so called journalists they were alarming and so inciting. Some of you making those comments would swallow your pride if you read them. One word RESPONSIBLE REPORTING

Edbert Oyesiga is one example of those people who are ready to do anything to see the dictatorial Government of YK M7 stay in but in spite of the numerous crime against humanity the government has committed!
@ Oyesiga, what and who was the chief cook of what transpired two weeks ago?

Complements of seasons.i'm writing a project work on "the impact of mobile phones on television news coverage". I'm in search of materials. I'v read the above findings and happenings in kampala,hear i saw the impact mobile jnurnalism or citizen jnurnalism have in news like this.pls help me to garther materils for my project topic.especialy its challenges,prospects etc. Thanks for ur co-operation.